FRISCO, Texas — Jennifer Fugate arrived at the Transporting Students with Disabilities (TSD) and Special Needs National Conference ahead of the annual roadeo competition and asked out loud, “Hey, are you Pinkie?”

Pinkie Roland responded, “Yes, are you Jennifer?”

Fugate, a school bus driver for Mansfield ISD located about an hour south of the conference hotel Embassy Suites Dallas-Frisco, signed up for the roadeo event but didn’t have a teammate. Neither did Roland. The event, organized by the industry group Women in Transportation., or Wit., usually attracts set teams of bus drivers and attendants but allows individuals to register and later be teamed with another lone participant.

Fugate and Roland were a logical pair, unbeknownst to them. They discovered ahead of Saturday’s competition held at nearby Prosper ISD, that they have a lot more in common than arriving solo.

Both are employees of Manfield ISD but their paths had never crossed. The school district has over 200 drivers, they explained at the roadeo banquet on Saturday night sponsored by Q’Straint/Sure Lok, moments after their names were called as winners of the competition. The competition is comprised of navigating nine hands-on stations — a pretrip inspection, wheelchair loading, wheelchair securement, student behavior management, car seat securement, railroad crossing, serpentine, rear alley, and emergency evacuation — as well as a written exam.

It was the fifth consecutive roadeo win at TSD Conference for a team from Texas.

Roland obtained her CDL three months ago and is driving for Mansfield after working as an attendant for the previous two years. Fugate is also a driver for the district and has been for the past couple of years.

Fugate, who played the role of the driver during the roadeo, said the most eye-opening aspect for her was the proper securement of children in a car seat as well as wheelchair securement. Roland, the attendant, agreed that the car seat competition was the most difficult for her along with managing student behavior.

“We’ll be back,” Roland said when asked if she and Fugate will try to defend their title next year.

Fugate’s and Roland’s training at Mansfield ISD paid off with a cumulative score of 947 points out of a possible 1,000. Second place went to the team of Elizabeth Berninger and Sheri Peterson, representing the Washington Association for Pupil Transportation as the state’s special needs roadeo champions from Kent School District. Andwain Coleman and Mohmed Omera of Plano ISD near Dallas, Texas, finished third.

Related: New Roadeo Scholarship Offered for TSD Conference, Applications Open
Related: Texas Team Takes Home Roadeo Crown at TSD Conference
Related: Texas Teams Dominate Roadeo Competition Held at TSD Conference

The post Texas Team Takes Home Roadeo Award at TSD Conference appeared first on School Transportation News.

Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.

Yes.

Interstate truckers in the U.S. are required to read and speak English under guidance by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (MCSAP). 

The federal register states that interstate drivers must read and speak enough English that they can “sufficiently converse with the general public” and respond to official inquiries. English-speaking regulations for drivers first came into effect in 1937 under the Interstate Commerce Commission. In 2016 the Obama administration relaxed enforcement, but in April the Trump administration rescinded that directive.

Enforcement of the rules vary from state to state. The U.S. Department of Transportation claimed in a press release that California, Washington and New Mexico have failed to enforce English requirements for commercial drivers.

On Aug. 26, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the federal government would withhold all MCSAP funding for these states unless they “adopt and enforce” English requirements within 30 days.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

• Federal Register: Driver Qualifications; Regulatory Guidance Concerning the Applicability of Language Requirement to Drivers Who Do Not Meet the Hearing Standard
• U.S. Department of Transportation: Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy to California, Washington, and New Mexico: Enforce English Language Requirements or Lose Federal Funding
• Honigman Law Firm: Executive Order Revives English Proficiency Enforcement for Truck Drivers

Are US interstate truckers required to read and speak English? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

News always travels fast, but it is not always accurate, which led to a Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District (Cy-Fair ISD) bus driver being incorrectly accused of driving erratically while transporting students via a local news station. The district’s superintendent released a social media statement setting the record straight.

On Monday, KHOU-11 published a news article reporting that the unidentified Cy-Fair ISD bus driver was pulled over by police and administered a field sobriety test after a receiving report from a bystander claiming they “saw the bus driving erratically.”

Cy-Fair Superintendent Doug Killian released a statement Thursday defending the school bus driver and clarifying the events.

“On Monday morning, one of our new drivers hit a curb on a tight turn to avoid a vehicle in the opposite lane,” Killian stated. “A community member reported this to Harris County Precinct 5 Constables. Our team reviewed the video of the route multiple times and can definitively say the driver was not driving erratically, as it was reported.”

Killian confirmed the driver was given a field sobriety test twice by law enforcement, as was shown by KHOU-11, and both tests came back negative. The school bus driver was then taken to a clinic for drug and alcohol testing, per district protocol. Killian confirmed those tests also came back negative.

The school bus driver was reportedly back on route Friday.

In the statement, Killian expressed his disappointment in the “click-bait report” that was released by the news station and said that the district is requesting an on-air retraction and apology to the driver.

“The media story created unnecessary embarrassment for this driver and was released prior to the completion of our full investigation. It painted a negative light on the true professionalism of our CFISD bus drivers and transportation staff,” he said.

He continued that while he does not hold out hope that the retraction and apology will happen, he felt it was his duty as superintendent to publicly release the facts of the incident and that he “cannot in good conscience sit by and watch a staff member be attacked or presented in a poor light when their actions were not poor or negatively impactful to kids.”

He explained that after the school bus driver was pulled over, the students onboard behaved well despite the delay, which he attributed to the “quality of our drivers and the high expectations they set for our riders since the first day of school.”

Killian thanked the driver involved for their service and said he encourages the media to report on positive news stories throughout the school year.

On social media, Kilian’s statement was commended by the community for defending the reputation of the driver. One Facebook commenter noted that following the release of the story, “There were so many hurtful and ugly negative comments,” illustrating how a story shared on social media can quickly garner a strong public reaction, even if the facts have not been verified yet.

“This was truly a fantastic example of leadership, accountability, and standing and speaking directly to the people and FOR the people you serve,” said another Facebook comment.

Meanwhile, KHOU published an updated article Thursday noting Killian’s response and the school bus driver passing all drug and alcohol tests, adding, “That criticism came despite the fact that we reached out to Cy-Fair ISD multiple times throughout the day ahead of our story Tuesday night and shared the district’s statement that noted the driver passed two field sobriety tests and an alcohol test, but had been placed on paid leave pending drug test results.”

The news station also reported it asked Cy-Fair for access to the video exonerating the school bus driver, but the request was denied.

Related: NTSB’s Alcohol Impairment Detection Recommendation More Nuanced for School Bus Drivers
Related: Update: Feds Withdraw Oral Fluid Collection for CDL Drug Tests Rule
Related: FMCSA Resources for Implementing Upcoming Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse

The post Superintendent Defends School Bus Driver Accused of Erratic Driving, Potential Impairment appeared first on School Transportation News.